We just found the coolest way to give your dog pills!

[thewayne]

It's probably been out for a while, but we don't go to PetSmart very often. It's made by the Greenies people and it's called Pill Pockets. It's a beef/chicken/etc protein thing that is sort of a little cup: you put the pills inside it, squeeze it shut, and give it to the pooch. Very convenient. They recommend using one hand to handle the pills and the other for sealing it so the dog doesn't smell the pill stuff on your hands, but I imagine the beef/chicken smell will override the medicine smell as far as they're concerned.


We've never had much of a problem giving pills to Celeste, we just put a bit of peanut butter on the and she gobbles it down. Recently Russet took her to get her teeth cleaned, and it turned out the poor thing had pneumonia! Fortunately the antibiotics for the first round were meat-flavored, so Celeste gobbled those no problem. But when we took her last week for a followup, she still had shadows, so she's on a second round of pre-dental antibiotics.

We also give Celeste a glucosamine pill twice a day, but for that we just put it with her food and put a dollop of yogurt on top of it. Fortunately, normally, all she needs is that pill with the regular heart worm pill, which is also meat-flavored and instantly devoured by her.

Comments

[silveradept]

Pill Pockets are one of the few ways we manage to get medicine into our dogs. They're wonderful for that purpose, and you don't even have to use the whole thing to cover most pills (about half will do), so you can make them last some, too.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

They are a bit pricey, but very effective. We find the dob of peanut butter to also be quite effective.

[silveradept]

Peanut butter will spoil before we use it all, most likely. We'd probably eat it, except peanuts and I don't get along any more.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Ah. My wife is quite fond of PB and PB&J on crackers as a snack, so no such prob here.

I won't say PB is never-spoil like honey, but I've never seen it spoil. Maybe go slightly stale, but not spoil.

[silveradept]

Hrm. Maybe so. I know the PBs that would be bought would be the kind that would separate if left alone for too long, and the like. Might not spoil, but could be rather interesting if discovered some time later.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The separation is oil, it re-blends if you stir it up again with a spoon.

[silveradept]

Yeah, so I guess it's not really a problem in the first place. Would have to wonder why she doesn't use the nut butters in such a way, then. Perhaps because she's tried it with them and it doesn't work.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Have you ever made almond "peanut butter"? It's pretty good, you can use a food processor. It requires refrigeration and does tend to separate a bit, but it's pretty yummy. Unfortunately I can't find the recipe that I used, but basically it's just almonds and oil, maybe a touch of salt.

[silveradept]

We normally get nut butters from places like Trader Joe's, so, no, haven't made it, but yes, are aware of them.